Sir John Pope-Hennessy (1913-94) was one of this century's most distinguished art historians and museum directors. He was Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum (1967-73), Director of the British Museum (1974-6), and Consultative Chairman of the Department of European Paintings, Metropolitan Museum, New York (1977-86). He was an authority on Renaissance art, and his publications included Paolo Uccello (1950), Fra Angelico (1952), The Portrait in the Renaissance (1967), Raphael (1970), Luca della Robbia (1980), Cellini (1985) and Donatello Sculptor (1993).

First published in 1955-63, Sir John Pope-Hennessy's classic
Introduction to Italian Sculpture
still stands as the definitive introduction to the subject. A triumph of clear organization, sustained critical scholarship and certain aesthetic judgement, its three volumes bring order to a huge mass of material, and present a magisterial survey of one of the most creative phases in Western art. These books have long been indispensable for scholars, students, curators, collectors and dealers.

For the fourth edition of this great work, the text has been revised and updated, and new notes and bibliographies have been added. The design has been dramatically transformed, with all the illustrations now appearing in a single sequence integrated with the narrative text. Many new photographs have been obtained, and duotone printing has been used to achieve the highest possible quality of reproduction. This classic work is now also reissued in a paperback edition, at a price that will make it available to students and a wider public.